Out of more than 140,000 contestants vying to become the 2018 Gerber Spokesbaby, Lucas Warren from Georgia will be the first with Down Syndrome in the competition’s roughly 90 year history. And, I say, what took so long!

His mother, Cortney Warren, released this in a statement: “We hope this opportunity sheds light on the special needs community and educates people that with acceptance and support, individuals with special needs have the potential to change the world — just like our Lucas.”

Tweets of support saturated social media and the internet:

I am actually quite thrilled this apparently joyful child has been named the winner. It will help to dispel so many falsehoods perpetually placed in the public sphere on the topic. Sadly, when the subject of Down Syndrome - a genetic condition that is accompanied by characteristic facial features, low muscle tone and a somewhat elevated predisposition to certain health issues (see here) - hits center stage it routinely is in the context of prenatal testing and family planning.

But, an action like this helps to spotlight the wondrous contribution a child like Lucas makes to his family, community and now the nation. And how bright his future is.

Like most conditions, there are spectrums of impairment. A misperception abounds that children with Down Syndrome are all quite sick and profoundly limited. The reality is where some might be afflicted with the known cardiac symptoms they are at higher risk for, many are not and others are able to be effectively treated and followed.

I have had the distinct pleasure of being a doctor for children with Down Syndrome and an innumerable host of disorders. The role has been a privilege and taught me so much about resilience, life and the limitless potential in all of us. No child or person for that matter is without challenges and struggles, some are simply more readily observed on the surface. Some start earlier than others and some don’t reveal themselves until adulthood. Regardless of the nature of them, my life (and the lives of those the individual directly touches) has always been enhanced and the better for the experience.

Recently, I was asked something that stuck with me when I was interviewed by a news outlet about “testing for everything” prenatally and genetic testing, in general. The question was something like “What do you say to parents who say they want to know it all beforehand because they couldn’t handle having a sick child?”

The answer was less important since it is a highly personal discussion that would require individually and extensively addressing the specific fears that preoccupied a couple. What stayed with me more was the fact that our culture of perfection was disabling people’s belief in themselves about what they could or could not handle in life and the mere fact that fear has become such an epidemic. The question alone displayed a misunderstanding of how unpredictable the adventure of parenting is for everyone. Additionally, it underscored this false perception around what we think we can control. With good and bad big life changes, it is not uncommon for people to want to cling to what they think they can control as a coping mechanism to assuage some of the pervasive anxiety they have surrounding the transition.

But, we do them no favors when we fail to manage their expectations.

In my article The Misperceptions Of Getting ‘Tested For Everything’ In Medicine, I discuss the fallacy surrounding ruling out “everything.” It is impossible as the science for predicting many disorders is not there and spontaneous and acquired mutations or traumas are an actuality in the real world. Chasing “what ifs” usually perpetuates fear, anxiety and misplaced concern or worry. It is a false perception that such tests control our futures. While we worry so about what may happen, we tend to lose our ability to cope with what actually does and garner a false sense of security in the process.

Probabilities are funny things in healthcare. They are not resolute. They are not certainties. They shift with time, aging, medication use, co-morbidities and lifestyle changes to name a few. And, though some diseases can be eliminated from the worry list, others cannot. And a lot of luck in avoiding injury and the like should not be understated or undervalued.

Becoming a parent comes with no guarantees. Not before the birth or after. Not even as a parent to an adult child. Getting comfortable with ambiguity, a difficult task for most of us, will make for a more enjoyable, meaningful ride.

Dr. Jamie Wells, MD, FAAP, is an award-winning Board-Certified physician with over a decade of experience caring for patients and the Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. She served as a Clinical Instructor/Attending at NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel and St. Vincent's Medical Centers in Manhattan. Dr. Wells graduated from Yale University with honors, was inducted as a junior and elected President of Jefferson Medical College's Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society and has been named a New York Super Doctor, repeatedly, in the NY Times magazine supplement listing the top 5% of physicians in over 30 medical specialties as chosen by their peers.
A National Merit Scholar, Dr. Wells was identified for her academic excellence early on when she was selected by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) for its prestigious Research Science Institute (RSI) and was featured as one of the top twenty high school students in the nation in USA TODAY as a recipient of their scholarship. At Yale, she was President of the Yale Science and Engineering Association, majored in American Studies and concentrated in media and film, spending her final year researching her senior essay entitled, "Ebola: The Making of an Epidemic"-- exploring the power of the governmental, political, public health and media machines and their desire to work in harmony when there is a common economic concern. In medical school, she maintained various leadership and elected positions (such as Editorials Editor of the school paper and editing guides to passing Board Exams) while creating mentoring and tutoring programs and spearheading countless volunteer activities that served the school and local Philadelphia communities. During this time, she did research for the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus of patients with Essential Tremor and Parkinson's Disease.
She was a grant reviewer for Komen's 2018-2019 Community Grants Program and has judged the local, district and world championships for Dean Kamen’s F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) robotics competition as well as the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen scholarship competition for which she was recently nominated and, subsequently, elected to be a member of its Board of Directors. Dr. Wells is on the Leadership Council of The Wistar Institute (the nation's first independent biomedical research facility and certified cancer center) and is a Visiting Fellow at the Independent Women's Forum. She has been awarded America's Top Pediatricians, America’s Top Physicians Honors of Distinction and Excellence, Compassionate Doctors Award, Patients Choice Award (honors given by patients to less than 3% of the nation's 720,000 active physicians) and been recognized for her exemplary care of those with Cystic Fibrosis. Dr. Wells was named a Doctor of Excellence which profiles the world’s leading doctors who have demonstrated success and leadership in their profession. For the better part of a decade, she answered all of the medical inquiries on line for the Boomer Esiason Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's website in a section entitled, ASK DR. WELLS.
Whether she is published, for example, in the acclaimed journal Neoreviews for a case involving a near drowning of an infant via water birth, USA Today regarding the mysterious illness of US diplomats in Cuba or the Huffington Post in response to the Dolce & Gabbana controversy or 10 ways to Save Your Life or the Life of a Loved One, it is a longstanding passion of hers to make science and health understanding accessible to all. She champions empowering others to be their own advocate in healthcare and has given talks to various audiences from struggling expectant mothers and parenting groups to undergraduates, spoken on panels as well as emphasized education to patients under her care. Believing she wanted to be a brain surgeon, she began her first residency in neurosurgery, ultimately switching fields to pediatrics. As a result, her knowledge is vast in the medical realm and sought after by innumerable media outlets.
Dr. Wells’ greatest asset is making complicated material palatable for people in a nonthreatening, often humorous way. Her opinion as a medical expert has been showcased on live and taped local, national and international television programs that run the gamut from CNN, Fox National News Channel, ABC News, BBC, Reuters, Al Jazeera TV, NY 1, CBS, TLC, Fox Business Network, Fox 5, Parent TV, CUNY-TV, My 9, Arise TV and so on having been featured in an hour length show on Discovery Health and, repeatedly, on Sirius Radio for Martha Stewart Living. She is a huge proponent of the health benefits of animals and was certified with her adorable and gifted English Bulldog, Mollie Joe, as a therapy team.
We asked New York City to guess her profession and no one got it right:

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"Big Fears Little Risks" is a documentary, but unlike most of what you see on places like Netflix, it is pro-science, and not scaremongering trace chemicals, food, or the modern world. We instead are going to take back the discourse from trial lawyers and the trade groups they use to profit from fear.

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